436 FRANCE.

defender of the Revolution, said the taxes paid by the peasants now amounted to more than the rent, tithes, and taxes, toge- ther, did, when they were tenants and not proprietors.

Metz is a fine old city, at the confluence of the rivers Moselle and Seille; but like most fortified places, the streets are narrow, and the houses lofty. Near the river, it is more open, the quays are broad, and the bridges magnificent. The river is clear and rapid, and swells to an expanded stream, where not confined by the embankments as it is within the fortifications. The inhabitants in 1803, amounted to 32,099, and by subsequent increase, are now said to be near 40,000. It is a manufacturing city, in which are made woollen goods of various kinds, hosiery, cotton goods, table linen, printed paper, musical instruments, starch, and powder; it contains also several extensive tanneries. Much trade originates here from the produce of the vines, some of which is converted into wine, but more into brandy and vinegar. Metz is very celebrated for the preparation of various kinds of confectionary.

This city is the seat of several legal tribunals, the station of the provincial boards of revenue, and of the forests for the department of the Moselle, and is the see of a bishop. The cathedral is the most perfect of the Gothic kind that I have observed on the continent; and though not so old as West- minster Abbey, may vie in external beauty with that venerable pile. The establishment for military education, called/ Ecole de Génie Militaire, has its seat in this city, and the number of the pupils is very great. I did not learn any thing definite respecting the mode of education, but I remarked that a coffee-house I visited to see the journals, was filled with these young men, and that no other papers were to be found but